Thursday, February 07, 2019

Flight attendants are trained to respond swiftly if an aircraft catches fire. But recently, this training proved its worth in an unexpected setting: a Mumbai high-rise.

On November 7, 2018, Radhika Ahire, a 25-year-old flight attendant with Jet Airways, put her safety training to perfect use when she noticed smoke coming out of an apartment on the ninth floor of Gokul Panchwati building in the suburb of Andheri. Ms. Ahire ran up the nine floors and broke into the locked apartment with a crash axe before emptying nine fire extinguishers. She managed to successfully douse the fire before the firemen arrived. Ms. Ahire was helped by her brother Rohit and a neighbour, Mahesh Belapurkar. The trio together carried all the fire extinguishers and the crash axe from their own building nearby, Deep Tower.

Recalling the day, Ms. Ahire said that the fire had been caused by a stray fire cracker that had landed in the ninth floor apartment. “I was stepping out when my attention was drawn to some commotion outside. I noticed that some clothes that had been put out to dry were burning. The fire soon spread into the apartment through an open window and the curtains started burning,” she said.

Much to the surprise of the crowd that had gathered to gawk at the fire, Ms. Ahire, Mr. Rohit and Mr. Belapurkar ran up the nine floors, since taking the elevator was risky.
07/01/18 The Hindu